Girl Talk
by lyrical-harmonies
Summary: Because there are some things guys just don't understand. A collection of scenes centering around Annabeth and the other girls at Camp Half-Blood. With lots of Percabeth.
1. Definitely

**A/N:** This is to be a collection of scenes centering around Annabeth and the other girls at Camp Half-Blood.

Because there are somethings guys just don't understand.

* * *

"Annabeth, are you okay?" Thalia asked. "You look nervous, and not like oh-my-gods-I'm-about-to-be-married nervous. It's more of a oh-my-gods-I'm-having-a-panic-attack nervous."

Annabeth took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

"What if he changes his mind?" she whispered, eyes closed.

Thalia let out a short laugh.

"This is Percy we're talking about. Aphrodite will turn ugly before he changes his mind about you. Don't worry. He'll be there at the altar," she assured the blonde.

"I don't mean now. But what if he changes his mind later? Do you realize how many marriages fail? What if, in a couple of years, he decides that he wants someth- someone else? How can he know that we're what he wants when he's never had anything else to compare it to?"

"Are *you* sure that this is what you want?" Thalia asked.

"Yes!" Annabeth exclaimed. "More than anything!"

"Well, you're in the exact same position. Why should he be any different? Annabeth," Thalia pleaded, taking Annabeth's hand in her own. "You and Percy are going to get married and you're going to be a world-class architect and one day, you're going to have a family of your own-"

When Annabeth's breath hitched at the word 'family,' Thalia's heart cracked.

"Ah, I get it," she sighed. "Annabeth, look at me," Thalia commanded calmly. "Percy is a far better person than Luke ever was and I could ever hope to be. And you are his whole world. That's never going to change."

"You really believe that?" the blonde asked.

"Do you really think I would be letting this wedding happen if I didn't?" Thalia countered. Annabeth giggled, and although the comment had come off as light-hearted, she knew that Thalia was completely serious.

"Annabeth," Thalia continued, more quietly now. "I don't think I've ever told you this, but if it weren't for Percy, I'm not sure I would've been comfortable joining the Hunt. It was a hard choice, leaving you, but I knew that Percy would take care of you and that made it easier. He's how I knew that you would be okay." Thalia smiled and the heavy demeanor rolled off her.

"Now, Annabeth, are you ready to go become Mrs. Annabeth Jackson?" she grinned. Annabeth silently nodded before closing her eyes and taking one last deep breath. She looked up at her friend again, eyes sparkling.

"Definitely."


	2. First Day

**A/N:** I wrote most of this back in November. In my head, Annabeth goes to Clarion the semester Percy is gone. This one is part of a string of scenes set at Clarion, so a decent explanation as to why she's there will be given later.

Enjoy!

* * *

"Did you hear about the new girl?"

"I heard she's from California."

"She definitely looks like it."

"Someone said she's like, scary smart."

"Blondie? No way."

Rachel smirked to herself, as she doodled in her notebook, waiting for her English class to start. Gossip was always so much more entertaining when you knew the truth.

The bell rang, but no one made any move to sit down, too busy whispering about the new girl's appearance two weeks in to the semester.

Silence fell over the room when the teacher, Mr. Lewis, entered with a tan blonde girl in tow. Rachel gave Annabeth an encouraging smile when she caught her eye. Being the new kid was hard, no matter how many times you had done it before.

"Girls, this is Miss Annabeth Chase," their teacher presented. "She will be joining us for the rest of the semester."

As soon as they had her name, the girls commenced their chatter once again. Their teacher gestured for Rachel, being the only one paying any sort of attention, to come forward. The redhead set down her pencil and made her way to the front of the classroom.

"Hey Annabeth!" Rachel exclaimed, before Mr. Lewis could make any further introductions. The girls hugged in greeting while the teacher only stared stupidly.

"You girls know each other?" he asked.

"Annabeth and I-" Rachel started, before Annabeth cut her off.

"Rachel is my cousin," she explained quickly.

"Well," Mr. Lewis shrugged in reply. "Rachel, will you please explain to Annabeth what we've been doing this semester? You're in luck, Annabeth. We've just begun our unit on Greek mythology."

"Sure," Rachel answered, trying to hold back a giggle. She turned to the blonde, one eyebrow raised. "Cousins?"

"In case there's a _family emergency_," Annabeth shrugged.

Rachel led the other girl to the desk next to hers, and took her place at her own desk. The two girls caught eyes and collapsed in a fit of laughter. They recovered quickly, but it had earned them a few odd looks from the other girls.

Mr. Lewis passed out a study guide, a list of terms, heroes, myths, etc. that they had to know, and instructed the girls to work with partners to fill out as much of the list as they could. When Annabeth volunteered to write, Rachel didn't object.

"Don't worry if you don't know much. This is just so I have some idea of where we need to start from," the teacher explained before dismissing them to find partners and start working.

"The list is in alphabetical order," Annabeth stated, turning to Rachel, "so first is Achilles-"

"Heel guy, River Styx, curse, invulnerability, blah blah blah..."

"Okay," Annabeth chuckled. "Next is Adonis, who isn't even properly Greek."

"I don't think he really cares," Rachel replied. Annabeth shrugged.

"So, what do you know about Adonis?" the blonde asked, already writing out the answer.

"Wasn't he really good-looking or something?"

"He was the result of Aphrodite's meddling," Annabeth started.

Rachel snorted in mock disbelief. "Aphrodite? Meddling? That doesn't sound like her at all."

"I know. Right?" Annabeth deadpanned before both girls burst in to another fit of the giggles. "Anyways, Myrrha's mother insulted Aphrodite, so Aphrodite cursed Myrrha to fall in love with her father, Cinyras, king of Cyprus. Myrrha tried to kill herself, but her nursemaid stopped her and made her explain what was going on. The nursemaid helped Myrrha trick her father in to sleeping with her while her mother was away and became pregnant.

"When Cinyras figured out it was her, he tried to kill her, but she ran away and prayed that the gods neither let her live nor die. So Aphrodite opted for turning her into a tree. Beautiful baby Adonis was born from the tree, and Aphrodite saved the baby and gave him to Persephone to look after. Persephone also loved the boy and refused to let him leave once he grew up, leading her and Aphrodite to fight over Adonis. A compromise was made so that he spent one-third of the year with Aphrodite, one-third with Persephone, and the last third with whomever he wished."

"Meaning Aphrodite."

"Exactly. This went on until he eventually got mauled by a boar and died."

"So he had a happy ending?" Rachel confirmed.

"Yeah, pretty much," Annabeth replied as Rachel examined their paper.

"Um, Annabeth? Maybe I should do the rest of the writing," the redhead suggested. "I think Mr. Lewis would prefer that our answers be in English." Annabeth studied the paper again, blushed, and handed it to Rachel. "Plus, I'm a bit better at keeping the answers at a mortal level."

The blonde stuck her tongue out at the girl, Rachel responding in kind.

"All right," Rachel muttered to herself. "Amazons are the female warriors; Amphitrite is Poseidon's wife; _he_ killed _that_; _she_ married _him_... What should I put about Aphrodite? Everything that comes to mind aside from 'goddess of love' isn't exactly flattering."

"Aphrodite," Annabeth smirked, counting the traits out on her fingers, "home-wrecker, heart-breaker, largely responsible for making my life miserable." She turned to Rachel, mentally reviewing the answer she had just given. "On second thought, just leave it at love goddess."

"Sounds good," the redhead laughed. "Next is... Apollo: home-wrecker, heart-breaker, particularly enjoys making _my_ life miserable. Also, god of knowledge, medicine, light, music, the sun, terrible poetry, and innocent, unsuspecting oracles."

"Mortal knowledge," reminded Annabeth, amused at her friend's description of the sun god. "And you're telling me what happened after class."

"He's an idiotic jerk."

"Of course he is. He's a god."

"Fair enough."

* * *

"Annabeth, you can sit with us at lunch if you want," offered Kelly, a girl from the blonde's math class.

"That would be great. Just give me a chance to talk to my friend. I don't know what her plans are for lunch yet," Annabeth replied, searching the cafeteria for Rachel.

"Annabeth!" Rachel called out, waving to get her attention.

Upon seeing Rachel, Kelly faltered. "Actually, I have a project that I need to work on. I totally forgot about it until just now. I'm sorry! Maybe we can talk later." And with that, she disappeared.

"Who were you talking to?" asked Rachel as Annabeth took a seat.

"Her name was Kelly," Annabeth replied. "She seemed nice, though she didn't appear to be too fond of you."

"Her? Oh, she has it in her head that I'm trying to steal her boyfriend."

"And why would she think that?"

"He was waiting for her near the entrance of the dorms while I was sitting on the steps, sketching. He saw my drawing and told me it was good," Rachel shrugged. "Apparently she felt threatened."

"Threatened by you? Imagine that," Annabeth smiled. "Now come help me find somewhere to sit. I'm hungry."

* * *

**A/N:** I'm sorry Annabeth is so OOC!


	3. Fear

**A/N:** I've had this one in my head for a while. It was primarily inspired by "Love Changes Everything" in Andrew Lloyd Webber's _Aspects of Love_. Set some time just after Percy disappears.

* * *

Clarisse normally didn't pay attention to the going-ons of Cabin Three, but recent circumstances had been anything but normal.

She had been leaving her cabin for an early-morning workout, when she spotted Malcolm standing outside Cabin Three, staring at it like it was a chess piece.

"If you're looking for a way in, might I suggest the front door?" Clarisse called sarcastically, but the Athena camper either hadn't heard her, or was choosing to ignore her. She started towards the boy and called out once again.

"Hey! Brain boy! What's up?" she said.

"Oh! H-hi Clarisse," Malcolm stuttered. "I wouldn't be here, it's just, Annabeth has been in his cabin for the past twenty-four hours, and, well, we need her."

"Last time I checked, you could handle the Athena cabin by yourself," Clarisse responded, unimpressed with his answer.

"She's been in there for a day. No food. No wa- well, I guess there's water, being Poseidon's cabin and all. But I'm not going to let Annabeth continue in the state she's been in. It's unhealthy," countered the boy.

"So, you're scared that we'll never find Percy."

"No! But she's so atta-"

"You really aren't scared?" Clarisse interrupted, surprised.

Malcolm shook his head.

"Then you must be insane," Clarisse replied coldly, "because, in case you haven't noticed, Hera just threw the rule book out the window. You've got to be an idiot if that doesn't scare you. Now, go back to your cabin. I'll handle Annabeth."

"Don't-"

"Go! I know what I'm doing," snapped the daughter of War.

Malcolm scampered off, clearly relieved to get away from both girls. She watched him until he had reached his cabin before walking up to the Poseidon cabin and knocking on the door.

"Chiron. Rachel. Grover," came a voice from inside. "I don't care who you are. I don't want to talk right now."

Clarisse opened the door quietly and stepped into the cabin. She carefully closed the door again before turning to Annabeth, who was lying on what she could only assume to be Percy's bunk.

"You really think you can get rid of me that easily?" Clarisse scoffed.

Annabeth looked up from whatever she had in her hands and responded softly.

"Oh. Hi Clarisse." Clarisse was startled by the dead look in the blond's eyes. She hadn't seen anyone look like that since-

Nevermind. It was best not to dwell on that.

"Hey, Princess," Clarisse deadpanned, strolling over to sit on the bed next to Annabeth's. "You planning on coming out of this place anytime soon?"

"I-I don't know," Annabeth replied, shaking her head. "Wow. I'm acting like I belong in the Aphrodite cabin, aren't I? I'm so pathetic. One guy-ONE GUY- goes missing and I'm reduced to a blubbering mess. My cabin's right. The amount that I depend on him is unhealthy. I'm surprised my mother hasn't disowned me yet," she rambled.

"Hey. Hey!" Clarisse placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. "It's not pathetic. Let me tell you something Si-Silena told me," Clarisse's tone was calm and firm, but it had a gentleness to it that it usually did not. "Love changes everything. I called her crazy when she first told me this, but it's true. She was right. Of course she was right, she's Silena. Besides," Clarisse had reacquired her normal dry tone, "don't you think I would've punched you out already if I thought you were like one of Aphrodite's brats? Give me a little more credit."

Annabeth met her eyes and gave a small smile.

"You better," she joked weakly.

"Now," Clarisse commanded, "you get up and come to breakfast and then meet me in the arena. You aren't the only suffering from his disappearance. You may have lost your boyfriend," she joked, "but I lost one of the camp's only decent sparring partners."

Annabeth gave her another tiny smile through her tears.

"Sure," she nodded.

"Good, because it wasn't a request. I'll see you in the arena," Clarisse smirked before making her way to the door.

"Hey, Clarisse?" Annabeth asked as Clarisse got to the door. Clarisse turned and nodded for he to continue.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it," replied Clarisse, affording herself a little smile. "But seriously, don't. You tell anyone about this conversation and I can't guarantee your safety."

And it was small, but for the first time since he had disappeared, Annabeth laughed.

* * *

**A/N:** Okay, can I just say I love Clarisse? Her character arc is kind of amazing.

There's a great mutual respect between Annabeth and Clarisse by the end of the first series, and I wanted to capture that, along with a rare but completely real side of Clarisse. Anyway, sorry if she seems a little OOC. And if she does, I challenge you to go back and read _BotL_ and _TLO_.

Tell me what you think!


End file.
